They set off early in the morning the next day.
Since Liu Xiao Li slept early last night, he woke up full of energy today. He sat in the horse carriage, playing and swinging his small wooden sword.
The carriage ride was bumpy. While the little boy stood up to brandish his sword, he lost his balance from time to time, nearly knocking himself against the walls. Seated at the side, Rong Leng shielded him from injuries.
Rong Leng's attentiveness towards her son made Liu Wei extremely unpleasant.
However, Rong Leng ignored her obvious gazes. As if taking an imp around was a great idea, he took care of Liu Xiao Li the entire day, when the boy is thirsty, he gave him water; when the boy is hungry, he gave him food. At the end of the day, Liu Xiao Li no longer buries himself in his mother’s embrace. Instead, he went into the embrace of the uncle who he formerly disliked.
Liu Xiao Li kneaded the uncle’s big hands, touched the thick callus and asked, “Will I grow these too if I learn swordsmanship?”
“Mhm.”
“Is it painful?”
“Not painful.”
“It is so hard.”
“Mhm.”
“Are there soft ones?”
“No, all calluses are hard. As hard as shells.”
“As hard as eggshells? Or tortoises’ shells?
“……”
“Uncle?”
“……”
Seeing how a certain prince could not answer, Liu Wei’s mood instantly became better. The unhappiness that was stifling inside her the whole day was finally lifted.
The rest of the journey continued peacefully. Liu Xiao Li did not complain because he had many new toys. However, Liu Wei was still high on alert. On one side, she could not let her emotions show; On the other side, she had to seamlessly pull his son closer to her side.
Not letting her son get too close with Rong Leng.
Luckily, once the carriage left the outskirts and reached the next city, Rong Leng no longer sits inside the carriage. He rode the horse instead.
Although Liu Wei does not know how he segregates boundaries of high-and-low-profile, she feels that all is good as long as Rong Leng distances himself from them.
There are two routes from Qu Jiang to the capital. One of which is by sea, which would be a smoother journey. By land, they would have to stop by Lin An. Liu Wei had asked Rong Leng why he chose the longer route. He mentioned that he had to drop by conveniently to Lin An to settle something.
Only till when they reached Lin An, Liu Wei then understood what he meant!
The sun was already setting. At the top of the lonely hill which serves as a mass grave post, there was a Yi Zhuang which was on the verge of collapsing anytime. Liu Wei’s complexion turned bad when she saw the three corpses lying in front of her. Her brows slightly lifted as she shot a glance at the man on her side, “Let me ask a question, are we spending the night here?”
(TN: Yi Zhuang is a charitable organization in ancient china that helps the poor.)
Rong Leng calmly looked at her, “That will depend if the speed of you examining the bodies could catch up with the time needed to enter the city before it closes.”
Liu Wei sighed, turned and wore a pair of gloves. She removed the white cloth covering the body.
These three male bodies are dead for at least two days. No matter her observation from the corpses’ livor mortis or the elasticity of the skin, it is obvious that the bodies were no longer fresh.
The lighting inside Yi Zhuang was not good. Only after Liu Wei lit up an oil lamp, then she could distinguish any distinctive outer features of the three corpses.
Even so, their outer appearance was no longer obvious.
That is because their faces were no longer intact. Their face, body, and legs were full of bite marks all over their body. Some were so deep that their white bones were covered with dripping blood.
These bite marks are similar to how wild animals gnaw and devour their prey. After all, only wild animals have such sharp teeth.
However, the fact is that this is not that simple.
Liu Wei passed Rong Leng the oil lamp. She removed the torn and tattered clothes of the corpses and closely examined the wound. She lightly pushed the wound, then proceeded to pry open the corpse’s mouth, scooping something from the inside.
As expected, on her white gloves, there were lumps of bloody raw meat.
She put the meat on one side and said plainly, “Something’s wrong.”
Rong Leng’s body leaned closer to her, “What’s wrong?”
“The cause of death is definitely because of these bite marks. But from the looks of it, these bite marks do not belong to animals, but humans. Also, inside their mouths, there was indeed meat that has not been swallowed, these are meat from their body. Therefore, these bite marks were inflicted by themselves or mutually.”
Rong Leng remained silent. Liu Wei could only faintly see the depth of his eyes becoming deeper under the lighting of the oil lamp.
Liu Wei thought for a while and continued, “These three men are all martial artists. In areas that are still intact, I can see battle scars from all year round. Are they your people?”
The man’s heavy tone brought some emotions that Liu Wei could not fathom, “Vanguards from an army camp inside of Zhen Ge.”
Liu Wei did not know what to say, she could only reply, “The corpses still have many doubtful points. Firstly, the gum structure of humans is different from animals. Normal humans would not be able to bite human meat like this. Secondly, a proper person, why would they need to use such a way to attack the other, did they meet with something? Thirdly, where were their corpses found?”
“Outskirts of Lin An.” Rong Leng’s tone was cold, “This is not the first. From two months ago, there were seven to eight vanguards found dead here without any distinct intervals. All dead are found in the same location. These three people were found yesterday.”
Liu Wei closed her eyes, “So many dead?”
“Someone is targeting Zhen Ge.”
Liu Wei frowned and nodded, agreeing with his viewpoint, she asked, “Can you still find the previously dead bodies?”
“You want to examine them?” Rong Leng took a glance at her. Seeing that she is serious, he continued, “They are buried.”
“Then forget it.” After all, they are all soldiers buried and at rest. In that case, they should not be disturbed. Anyway, these three bodies are sufficient, “I want to dissect them and analyse whether their internal organs have any other injuries. Will the Prince wait outside or stay here to look?”
Rong Leng got interested and replied, “I will stay here.”
Seeing that there was no fear in his eyes Liu Wei did not care and warned, “Hold the lamp properly.”
The man brought the lamp closer, allowing Liu Wei to look at the corpse clearer.
Liu Wei took a scalpel and drew on the body. After determining the anatomy, the tip of the scalpel pierced open the skin of the corpse’s chest with two strokes. Then, she flipped the chest skin towards the head area. She cut another stroke at the lower abdomen and opened it. This way, all the internal organs are visible at one glance.
Liu Wei is skilled at this. Within a few moments, the body's inner cavity could be seen.
She first took out the corpse’s stomach, cut open and scooped the things inside.
How is it possible that a normal person could bite and eat their comrades that are alive?
Liu Wei did not stop, she continued to examine the other organs. According to her analysis, all their internal organs are intact with no internal injuries. The cause of their death was due to external injuries.
She used the same methodology to open and analyse all three bodies. All findings were the same.
Liu Wei raised her pupils and took a glance at him. After she saw that his expression was as normal and was not shocked by the way she dissected the body, she was unconsciously impressed by him.
“There were no problems with the body. I want to open their brain to check.”
“Open their brain?” The man lifted his brows.
Liu Wei nodded, “Check if their central nervous system has any abnormalities.”
Central nervous system?
That’s a very fresh word.
Rong Leng did not ask what it means. Liu Wei also did not want to explain. This kind of thing is too complicated to explain. Furthermore, all these are terminologies from the modern era, explaining more will make it harder to comprehend.
Opening the brain of a live person has too many scruples, like damaging the brain cortex. But opening the brain of the dead is much easier.
Liu Wei touched her tool bag, took out a shaver and shaved the hair of the corpses.
Once the three bodies were left with only smooth and gleaming bald heads, she started to cut open one of the heads of the corpse. The scalpel followed the shape from the forehead to cut a circle. Since the circumference of the cut was very big, the brain was uncovered immediately.
While she was busy cutting, she could see the flame of the oil lamp shake a little.
Liu Wei slanted her head and looked at Rong Leng. Seeing that his expression remained the same, she unconsciously found it funny, “Is the Prince not used to it?”
The man only replied after quite a while, “Indeed, I have not seen this before.”

MelonBunz's Remarks:

please do stay healthy while we are fighting Covid-19. Let's hope for the better!
-MelonBunz